Introduction

uShare[1][2]
is a Upnp (TM) A/V Media Server based on GmediaServer[3]. It implements the server component that provides UPnP media devices with information on available multimedia files. uShare uses the built-in http server of libupnp to stream the files to clients.
uShare is written for the GeeXboX[4] project. It is designed to provide access to multimedia contents to GeeXboX but can of course be used by any other UPnP client device. It should compile and run on any modern POSIX compatible system such as Linux. uShare is free software - it is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Install

# /etc/ushare.conf
# Configuration file for uShare
# uShare UPnP Friendly Name (default is 'uShare').
USHARE_NAME=Ushare
# Interface to listen to (default is eth0).
# Ex : USHARE_IFACE=eth1
USHARE_IFACE=eth0
# Port to listen to (default is random from IANA Dynamic Ports range)
# Ex : USHARE_PORT=49200
USHARE_PORT=52000
# Directories to be shared (space or CSV list).
# Ex: USHARE_DIR=/dir1,/dir2
USHARE_DIR=/mnt/disk1/share
# Use to override what happens when iconv fails to parse a file name.
# The default uShare behaviour is to not add the entry in the media list
# This option overrides that behaviour and adds the non-iconv'ed string into
# the media list, with the assumption that the renderer will be able to
# handle it. Devices like Noxon 2 have no problem with strings being passed
# as is. (Umlauts for all!)
#
# Options are TRUE/YES/1 for override and anything else for default behaviour
USHARE_OVERRIDE_ICONV_ERR=true

Start

/etc/init.d/ushare start

Package Changes:

Moved everything to /usr/local/, with the execption of the init script..

Configuration

At first you need to be sure that you have setup a multicast route for UPnP messages. If you don't but have a default route attributed, then this later will be used. Otherwise, simply declare a new route for UPnP multicasts (for example using eth0 interface) :

route add -net 239.0.0.0 netmask 255.0.0.0 eth0

To complete the installation, you must edit /etc/ushare.conf to add the location(s) of your media files.

Usage

uShare runs from the console only. It supports the usual --help option which displays usage and option information.

Command Line Options

-n

--name=NAME

Set UPnP Friendly Name (default is 'uShare')

-i

--interface=IFACE

Use IFACE Network Interface (default is 'eth0')

-p

--port=PORT

Forces the HTTP server to run on PORT

-c

--content=DIR

Share the content of DIR directory (default is './')

-w

--no-web

Disable the control web page (enabled by default)

-v

--verbose

Set verbose display.

-D

--daemon

Run as a daemon.

-V

--version

Display the version of uShare and exit

-h

--help

Display this help

uShare expects at least one directory argument (-c argument), specifying where multimedia files are stored. You should probably also use the -i option to specify which interface uShare should listen on.

ushare -i eth0 -c /shares

Web Interface

You can also perform remote control of uShare UPnP Media Server through its web interface. This let you define new content locations at runtime or update the currently shared one in case the filesystem has changed. After starting ushare you can go to the web interface to manage it's shares: http://linkstation:49200/web/ushare.html